James Chester scores the decisive penalty for West Brom against Peterborough in their FA Cup fourth round replay.
Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP/Getty Images

West Bromwich Albion’s desire to ensure the final third of their season amounts to something more than a grim battle against relegation was tested to the very limit by Peterborough United. Jon Taylor’s low shot saw the League One side take a thoroughly deserved second-half lead, and after a well-struck equaliser from Darren Fletcher took the tie into extra-time, both sides created chances to win a hugely entertaining encounter before the Baggies came through 4-3 on penalties.

That one of Peterborough’s penalties was missed by Martin Samuelsen was harsh in the extreme. The 18-year-old Norwegian midfielder, on loan from West Ham, was outstanding throughout, but then so too were his team-mates. Such was their verve, energy, application and skill, at times it was difficult to say which was the side from the higher level.

Albion’s manager, Tony Pulis, agreed. “You have to give Peterborough all the credit. I love this competition and it’s special because of games like that – the way they played was absolutely fantastic. We had the opportunities to win it in open play, but I’m just happy to be in the next round.”

In one respect, of course, Peterborough could not lose, this replay realising the club around £350,000 in television fees, gate receipts and advertising. Welcome though that sum no doubt is, however, Peterborough have become proficient at maximising revenue over the past few years, during which they have sold players for upwards of £25m, meaning progress to a fifth-round tie at the Championship side Reading did not represent the financial lifeline it might once have done.

Albion’s lack of goals of late made Saido Berahino’s recall to the starting line-up something of a necessity, but the sometime refusenik forward was a spectator for much of the opening quarter hour.

Posh poured forward with pace and style, and Harry Beautyman saw one side-foot effort blocked and Taylor shot wide before Ben Foster had to block Beautyman’s fierce drive. By then Albion had lost Gareth McAuley, the centre-back pulling up with a hamstring injury.

The tackling was robust, on both sides, and by the half hour the Baggies had not improved on their record of having failed to have a single shot on target in three of their previous four games. Berahino, with a side-foot volley from outside the box, nearly did so: the Posh goalkeeper Ben Alnwick looked relieved to see the ball fly just past his left-hand post.

As half-time approached Albion, finally, began to carry a more consistent threat. James McClean’s shot was blocked, and from the corner James Chester’s shanked close-range shot hit Darren Fletcher and flew over the bar. The interval gave Peterborough fresh energy. Lee Angol, Taylor again and Shaquile Coulthirst all went close before Albion went behind.

Caught short at the back by a swift break, they could not prevent Angol pulling the ball across the field to Taylor, sprinting into space down the left. The midfielder’s low left-foot shot looked a little scuffed, but it was strong enough to brush aside Foster’s reaching hand.

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Pulis, desperately trying to regain some sort of initiative, replaced Claudio Yacob with Stéphane Sessègnon. Initially it made little difference: if anything, the margin of superiority increased in the League One side’s favour.

The visitors had their moments, though, Craig Gardner’s scissored volley from 25 yards just wide a case in point, and on 71 minutes they equalised. Beautyman failed to clear McClean’s cross from the left, and Fletcher thumped a rising shot cleanly past Alnwick.

Still Peterborough came forward. Coulthirst, picked out by the creative Samuelsen, took too long to control the ball but was still given enough time to hit a powerful low drive a foot wide. Albion might have won it in normal time when Alnwick’s scuffed clearance was returned towards the empty goal by Berahino, only for Michael Bostwick to kick the ball clear.

Extra-time was no less absorbing, with Gabriel Zakuani’s remarkable headed clearance of Gardner’s goal-bound shot the nearest the deadlock came to being broken until Berahino, totally unmarked in the final minute of the game, somehow contrived to head wide from inside the six-yard box.

“They showed what quality players they are,” said Graham Westley of his Peterborough team. “We’ve a very young squad, but it’s packed with talent, and if the players keep working and improving, they won’t be League One players for long.

“Samuelsen is going to be a hell of a player. At times he probably overdoes things, but he’s a fantastic talent.”